Navy officials: Pilot error caused August crash near Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI - A Navy training plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico in August was caused by pilot error, a Navy investigation determined.

Two pilots, an instructor and a student, bailed out south of Bob Hall Pier on August 24 after losing control of their T-34C Turbomentor, a two-seat propeller plane, that was part of Training Squadron 28 at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.

According to a report obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, Rear Adm. William Sizemore, chief of naval air training, concluded that the instructor waited too long to assume the controls after the student pilot made a common error.

The pilots lost control with the plane upside down and spinning.

Sizemore wrote that it's not unusual for an instructor to allow the student to commit an error, but that it shouldn't be allowed to progress to the point that it endangers the crew.

"The decision to bail out was the first correct decision (the instructor) made in a long series of bad decisions based on being complacent in the aircraft," Sizemore wrote.

The pilots bailed out of the plane while it was upside-down and parachuted into the water. Within 10 minutes, a Coast Guard helicopter reached the site, about 12 miles from the naval air station, and a rescue swimmer helped the pilots to safety. They were evaluated at a hospital and released within hours. The Navy did not release the names of the pilots.

The report recommended that trainers re-emphasize procedures for dealing with student errors, preventing loss of control, and recovering control.